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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8921
The U.S. Department of Labor today proposed a streamlined
Form 5500 Annual Return/Report Series designed for use by more than 800,000
employee benefit plans to file information with the federal government. The
proposal is the result of the joint efforts of the department's Pension and
Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA), the Internal Revenue Service, and the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
"If adopted, the revised Form 5500 is intended to reduce
the administrative burdens and costs to plans associated with meeting their
annual reporting requirements," said Olena Berg, Assistant Secretary of PWBA.
"We believe this is a step in the right direction; however, we want the
employee benefit community to give us their comments and suggestions for
improvement."
In an effort to reduce the reporting burden on filers,
while also improving data collection under the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code, the agencies proposed one
Form 5500 for use by both "large plan" filers (plans that previously filed the
Form 5500) and "small plan" filers (plans that previously were eligible to file
the Form 5500-C/R).
The proposal restructures the Form 5500 along the lines of
tax returns familiar to individual and corporate taxpayers a simple one-page
main form with basic information along with a checklist to show which of the
more detailed schedules are being filed applicable to the filer's specific type
of plan. The proposal also includes easy-to-use filing instructions. The new
form is intended to:
- Reduce the total amount of information required to be reported for
many plans by eliminating information that is not useful to accomplish
enforcement, research, or other statutorily mandated missions;
- Provide plans using simple tax qualification structures and
financial operations with correspondingly streamlined annual reporting
requirements;
- Target reporting requirements so that welfare plans generally
complete fewer items than pension plans, and small plans complete fewer items
than large plans; and
- Establish the Form 5500 as the standardized reporting format for all
so-called "direct filing entities" common/collective trusts, pooled separate
accounts, master trusts, 103-12 investment entities, and group insurance
arrangements.
The department is simultaneously developing a new
computerized form processing system to reduce government and filer costs
associated with filing, receiving and processing annual reports. The new system
will rely on electronic filing with optical scanning technology and optical
character recognition to computerize the paper forms. Under the new system, the
paper forms will have to be reformatted to be computer scannable. A mock-up of
a scannable Form 5500 is being published with the proposal. Furthermore, the
new system is being developed in a way that should substantially increase the
percentage of plans filing electronically.
A public hearing on the new forms will held on Nov. 17 and
(if necessary) Nov.18, in the Department of Labor's auditorium, Frances Perkins
Building, 200 Constitution Avenue., NW, Washington, DC.
Written comments on the new forms and requests to present
oral testimony at the hearing should be submitted by Nov. 3 to: Office of
Regulations and Interpretations, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration,
U.S. Department of Labor, Rm. N5669, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington,
DC 20210; "Attention: Proposed Forms Revisions" for written comments and
"Attention: Form 5500 Revisions Hearing" for requests to testify.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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